Articles / Resources

Woodbury Draws Reps with ‘Human Touch’

00:00 01 January in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News January, 2006: New York - One growing insurance-owned broker-dealer says that it is the human touch that keeps and attracts registered representatives. The market is such that "with meaningful reps, they want to find a home and stay there," said Brian Murphy, chief executive of Woodbury (Minn.) Financial Services Inc. Since its parent, The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc., acquired broker-dealer Fortis Investments Inc. of Boston almost five years ago, Woodbury has grown at a rate of 15% annually, he said, reaching about $175 million in gross revenue last year. The firm has nearly 2,100 affiliated registered reps and 200 employees. The reps hail from other independent-contractor firms, with several large-producing groups scheduled to join Woodbury this month, Mr. Murphy said, adding that reps both join...

Characteristics of Top Producers

00:00 01 January in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in ProducersWeb January, 2006: Success is a journey, not a destination. Top producers live that credo because it enables them to excel while enjoying what they do, feel motivated, energized and satisfied. After consulting with a wide variety of advisors, as I do, certain personal characteristics have inevitably emerged. And it’s typically those characteristics that differentiate top producers from the others. Now, the term top producer is relative, since advisors producing $200,000 in Wyoming can be every bit as successful as advisors producing $500,000 in San Francisco or New York City. So we’ll leave the quantitative definition of top producer open to your interpretation; instead, we’ll detail these eight qualitative personal characteristics of highly successful financial services professionals. Character and integrity Hardship and difficulty do not create character and...

Strength in Numbers

00:00 01 January in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in Investment Advisor January, 2006: In your search to find business approaches that can make your practice stand out, you may have found that real value is more elusive than ever as our industry becomes increasingly commoditized. There are exceptions to every rule, however, and while our recruiting firm places advisors with over 50 broker/dealers nationwide, some of the real jewels we contract with are a dozen or so producer groups. What are producer groups, you ask? Simply put, producer groups are likeminded advisors doing business through carefully selected independent broker/ dealers. Though producer groups grew out of several different models, the two most common types are: Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction ( OSJ) groups, in which the principals of several advisory firms band together under the premise they’ll have...

Balancing Act

00:00 01 January in In the News by rafferty

by Kathleen M. McBride and featured in Investment Advisor January, 2006: What a remarkable time these last few years have been for independent broker/dealers.The markets have recovered from a bubble, a crash, a grinding bear market, investment industry scandals, and corporate debacles. An aging population has realized that big corporate—or public—pension plans are, in many cases, gone or at least eviscerated, and that they generally are on their own, saving and investing for a long retirement. Tremendous wealth has been created. Scads of investors have realized that they want need—advice about managing their money, whether from a local independent advisor or a representative of a wirehouse, bank, or insurance company. Many of the challenges broker/dealers face are client-driven. Even many of the regulatory issues are, in a roundabout way, the result of client...